According to game informer

https://www.gameinformer.com/2018/11/14/sony-interactive-entertainment-is-not-attending-e3-in-2019

As the industry evolves, Sony Interactive Entertainment continues to look for inventive opportunities to engage the community," Sony said in a statement to Game Informer. "PlayStation fans mean the world to us and we always want to innovate, think differently and experiment with new ways to delight gamers. As a result, we have decided not to participate in E3 in 2019. We are exploring new and familiar ways to engage our community in 2019 and can’t wait to share our plans with you

Based on the things sometimes discussed on the Bombcast this seem like it was a long time coming in terms of E3 not being needed as much but its still A very interesting announcement.

I think companies just don't want to fight over bylines or having to keep big news until a certain date or announce something when they don't want to. Personally i'm fine with it as we probably don't need more last of us footage or death stranding in my opinion.

So now who will move journalists and influences from venue to venue during a press conference?

In an article on The Verge, Sony was quoted to just not have enough to announce next year. Simple as that.

Maybe PS5 in the works

Hopefully Sony will have something else then.

I'm one of those people who enjoy E3 because it's fun to get big surprises and a pile of announcements at once. With people constantly leaking crap, that's been less and less of a thing which is disappointing. To watch the conferences with bated breath, waiting for the next hilarious awkward disaster to happen for everyone to see. Again, companies have wisened up I guess and they have been going smoothly for the most part, barring just bad presentation ideas like Sonys 2018 conference or that other event with the orchestra and just a series of videos in that theater.

This rings to me as good news because I don't think I can deal with another pretentious E3 presentation from Sony.

@dudeglove: I was just about to say that. If everyone is doing their own thing then why even bother having E3, unless they want to change it into something more consumer focused like PAX.

Watching E3 slowly melt away is a bummer to me since that's my favorite GB content, but I suppose it's inevitable. Why do a huge expensive dog & pony show at a physical location once a year when the Internet makes communicating directly with your audience cheap and easy?

This is like part 1 of the actual death of E3 right? I mean when Nintendo pulled out it was like ehh whatever sure, they have their own thing, but Sony and Microsoft have been the staple of E3 for years now. If Sony is pulling out then it's like half the show is gone, it's not like EA is going to pick up the slack here. This is kinda nuts really.

Whatever snarky thing one can say about Sony's press conferences (especially this year's), I agree with people that this IS pretty significant. They have their PSX event and stuff, but pulling out of E3 altogether is pretty crazy.

Also, I know we're like 8 months early, but those of you who have, "Is E3 even relevant," on your E3 bingo cards for next year, go ahead and mark that space now!

Finally, now that most of the large platform holders and publishers are doing their own thing, the Devolver stage show can take over and give the audience what they really want: Confusing and alienating humor. Plus constantly reminding Dave Lang of his mortality.

Joking aside, hopefully smaller studios are able to stand out more in the whole kerfuffle.

I guess the "E" in E3 will soon mean "empty".

Anyway, I liked when Sony experimented new stuff on their conferences, like they did this year, so I'm curious to see what they'll do moving forward.

PS5 is for sure in the works in some capacity.

I think looking back at what they did for e3 this year it kinda makes more sense why they arent going to do need a full presentation in 2019 especially when a new console may be happening that they want to prep for. I think you do your own show for that.

I really enjoy E3, if only to watch GB react to how dumb it usually is, the actual output from the event gets less and less impressive each year especially with current gaming trends, but "the show" is still exciting to be a part of.

@bladeofcreation: They actually won’t be doing a PSX this year so as far as we know, E3 2018 was the last time they had a conference and they won’t have one for the foreseeable future.

their last two e3 shows have been boring slogs so hopefully they find better way to present stuff. wouldn't be opposed to them going the nintendo direct route. all their flashy bullshit in the theater like having a giant orchestra, having bodies hanging from the ceiling and building an entire dumb church might be fun for the people there but it does absolutely nothing for people watching at home and is often just in the way of what we're there to watch which is basically just a bunch of trailers.

Sony's show at last years e3 was terrible. (despite having great exclusives) So no loss there. But I do hope e3 goes on. I know it's kind of sad but I look forward to e3 more than any other holiday event. I know it's just an industry cock fight to appease investors but it's a damn entertaining one. At least we'll still have the Keighley's if it does die I guess.

That wasn't even E3. Think it was Gamescom? Just another reason for E3 to move on.

This is a big deal. I'm sure Sony will have their own web-series of announcements to get news out and drum up some hype, but E3 has always been a very competitive event, and Sony bailing basically leaves Microsoft to dominate it front and center every year.

I'm sure someone somewhere has crunched the numbers and come to the conclusion that this is the smart play, but E3 is a pretty well-known event and consequently a great source of exposure. Sony must be pretty confident in their plan B if they're willing to pass it up.

I wouldn't be surprised that the reason they don't have games to show is because they're focusing all their developers on PS5 stuff.

That is nuts for E3, but not for Sony. I feel like their past E3 shows would have been a better fit for something like Nintendo Direct, or just a smaller SCEA convention, and they are announcing this sea of change because they are confident with their product and direction. I'm excited to see what they will do, but being that some of my favorite GB content is E3 coverage, I wonder how that would be like next year.

@awesomeusername: Oh I didn't know that, that's kind of crazy then. I mean, they could throw their own event whenever they want. It worked well for the PS4 reveal. I'm sure it's fine. It's just...a big move for a company like Sony.

It makes sense. In the end, most people (I think) are viewing the show online anyway. Eventually GB needs to find a new way to meet and chat with developers and East / West members, outside of E3 context.

But does this mean "not at E3" as in "nothing from Sony at all in 2019," or will they just be having their own event at a different venue that week like others have started doing?

I don't know if this is a permanent thing or if they'll be back in 2020, probably pushing PS5 stuff. Honestly, 2018 was really good for them but I don't want to watch a conference headlined by Days Gone DLC or whatever. Meanwhile, this is another opportunity for Microsoft to claw back if they play their cards right.

I wonder if this means that Ghosts of Tsushima is a 2020 games.

Lame. I always like getting a ton of news and announcements in those few days. E3 week at Giant Bomb is something I always look forward to even if Sony hasn't interested me much at all the last few years.

With sony announcing the PSN name changes being possible with a long list of potential issues and now this i have to wonder.

Are sony just laying the foundation and holding back games for the PS5?

Too few titles left in the pipeline at this point of PS4's life cycle but too early for Sony to present any of the PS5 projects their teams work on I guess. Makes sense for Sony but E3 got a lot less exciting of course.

I enjoy E3 a lot, just give me some pie charts Sony or a rubber duck demo or a historic giant crab!

I wouldn't be surprised if Sony holds a separate conference sometime later in 2019 where they control the narrative and they dont have to share the spotlight with anybody with at PS5 coming out in 2020 like most thought

Edit: I've also thought the The Last of Us 2 actually gets pushed as a PS5 launch title

The Sony event used to be the highlight of my E3 experience until they went astray the last couple of years. If they don't at least do an online pre-recorded show I will be super sad. I take the week off from work for E3 but its getting harder every year to justify it with so many companies pulling out.

Too bad. It's not as fun having multiple events constantly throughout the year...I know it's partly just what I'm used to but I enjoy looking forward to "the show" each year.

@brendan: yeah I agree, it's just going to be weird if there isn't any showing from Sony. Always liked the big event nature of E3, even if that has been waning.

This kinda comes off sounding like Sony saying "We're taking our ball and going home". "We really don't wanna play with others, and fuck cross-platform play too."

Or probably more likely a cost-benefit type thing in reality.

I've never appreciated Sony's approach to the gaming industry. Although every company is out for themselves, Sony don't even try to look like they're interested in the customer base's interests.

They've smashed this generation, in terms of first party games, but every other aspect of Playstation is utter dogshit in my opinion.

This just seems like another step in the 'we're out for ourselves' direction.

Really it's hasn't made any sense for these huge companies to waste money at E3 for some time now. E3 for the longest time been for business and retail and with retail mostly being online these days and more and more releases being digital it makes no sense to have big event like E3. Everything can easily be posted online with a fraction of the cost of spending stupid amount of money just to build hype. Honestly E3 has just been dying since for a good 5 or so years and with no nintendo or Sony now, I really do not see much of a point or seeing E3 being a thing for that much longer unless it's consumer focused.

I always get the impression deals are done at E3, though. As for Sony being out for themselves, yeah, that's business. Microsoft only backtracked on every aspect of their console design (always online, games locked to accounts, Kinect) because it was bad for business. And they're still trying to make the ground up.

They only have The Last of Us 2 left and they don't want to take up a slot. Heck, that could be out by then. What remains would be third party stuff like Sekiro, Nioh 2 and a VR sizzle reel.